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Friday, March 17, 2017

The Skinny: Winnipeg 4, Isles 2

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 70

Winnipeg 4, Isles 2

Bryan Little scored a pair of first period goals to erase an early Islander lead and the Winnipeg Jets led the rest of the way, defeating the Isles 4-2 before a crowd of 13,700 at Barclays Center.

Adam Pelech had given the Isles an early lead with a first minute goal and Anders Lee's career-best 26th goal, early in the third period were the only Islander tallies.

With the loss, the Isles fall one point behind Toronto for the 2nd Wild Card spot; the Leads also hold a game in hand. The Isles remain tied with Tampa Bay in terms of points. Toronto had 13 games to play while the Isles and Lightning each has 12.

The Isles are 16-9-3 (.625) under Interim Coach Doug Weight …Since opening the season 6-10-4, Isles are 27-16-7 in their last 50 games…The Isles are 7-5-1 in the last 13 games... The Isles' top line has 27 goals (and 42 assists) in 28 games under Weight… Joshua Ho-Sang's point streak ended at three games…The Isles failed to score a goal in the second period for the first time in nine games… Bryan Little recorded his 3rd mutli-goal game to reach the 20 goal mark for the fifth time in his career…The Jets had a goal taken away in the second period following a successful Islander challenge for an offsides…John Tavares had 9 shots on goal after having 10 shots on January 22nd; he is the first Islander to have at least 9 shots on goal in multiple games in two different seasons in the last 30 years…Thomas Greiss leads all goalies this month in both games (9) and minutes (459)…Mark Stuart recorded his first assist in 59 games; his last assist was on December 29, 2015 vs Detroit. It was the 66th assist (and 91st point) of his 662-game NHL career.

The 300 Point Club

Josh Bailey remains one point shy of becoming the 6th player from his draft class to reach 300 points:

(Stamkos, Karlsson, Eberle, Doughty, and Stepan have already done so.) His next point will also be his 50th point of the season.

The 300 Assist Club

John Tavares recorded his 298th assist. He needs two assists to become just the 10th player to record 300 assists as an Islander.

Experience Counts … 17 Times

Jason Chimera is only the second Islander age 36 or over to score 17 goals in a season; Bill Guerin, who turned 37 early in the 2007-08 season, scored 23 times that season. Guerin also scored 16 times the next season, before being dealt to Pittsburgh.

Most points in NHL since January 19th (Weight's First Game)

(x) Excludes STL-SJ tonight

GP

W

L

OT

Pts

1

Ottawa

27

16

8

3

35

Islanders

28

16

9

3

35

San Jose (x)

24

15

4

5

35

4

Chicago

23

17

6

0

34

Washington

26

16

8

2

34

Pittsburgh

25

15

6

4

34

Nashville

26

15

7

4

34

8

NY Rangers

25

16

8

1

33

Playoff Chase:

(Excludes Buf- LA)

Metropolitan

GP

PTS

1.Washington

70

98

2.Columbus

69

96

3.Pittsburgh

69

95

Atlantic

GP

PTS

1.Montréal

70

86

2.Ottawa

69

85

3.Boston

71

82

Wild Card

GP

PTS

1.NY Rangers

70

90

2.Toronto

69

78

3.ISLANDERS

70

77

4.Tampa Bay

70

77

5.Philadelphia

70

72

6.Florida

68

71

7.Carolina

68

70

8.Buffalo

69

68

Friday's games

Florida @ NY Rangers 7:00

New Jersey @ Pittsburgh 7:00

Buffalo @ Anaheim 10:00

Saturday's games

Columbus @ Isles 1:00

NY Rangers @ Minnesota 7:00

Washington @ Tampa Bay 7:00

Chicago @ Toronto 7:00

Montreal @ Ottawa 7:00

Nashville @ Carolina 7:00

Sunday's games

Florida @ Pittsburgh 1:00

Columbus @ New Jersey 1:00

Carolina @ Philadelphia 7:30

Ottawa @ Montreal 7:30

Monday's games

Boston @ Toronto 7:30

Buffalo @ Detroit 7:30

Tuesday's games

NY Rangers @ New Jersey 7:00

Calgary @ Washington 7:00

Pittsburgh @ Buffalo 7:00

Ottawa @ Boston 7:00

Detroit @ Montreal 7:30

Carolina @ Florida 7:30

Philadelphia @ Winnipeg 8:00

Wednesday's games

Isles @ NY Rangers 8:00

Toronto @ Columbus 7:00

Last 39

The Isles are now 22-12-5 in their last 39 games (since December 20th vs. Boston). In those games, the PP is 19-111 (17.1%) and the penalty kill is 15-92 (83.7%).

In Goal, #1

Thomas Greiss has played in 12 straight games (6-5-1), 31 of the last 35 games (16-11-4 with three shutouts) and 33 of the last 39 games (18-11-4 with three shutouts). Greiss has already appeared in a career high 43 games, and set career highs for both wins (23) and shutouts (3).

Weight Lifted

Isles leading scorers since Doug Weight became the Isles' interim coach:

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

+/-

1

John Tavares

28

10

18

28

+4

2

Anders Lee

27

11

10

21

+2

Josh Bailey

28

6

14

20

+8

4

Nick Leddy

28

4

14

18

+4

5

Ryan Strome

28

7

9

16

-1

6

Brock Nelson

27

7

8

15

-4

Andrew Ladd

25

11

4

15

-2

8

Jason Chimera

28

9

3

12

+4

A Different Road

The Isles are 11-10-2 in their last 23 road games, after winning only 2 of their first 11 road games (2-6-3).

Solid at Home

The Isles have earned points in 11 of their last 13 home games (9-2-2), although they have lost two straight at home by a combined score of 12 to 6.

Longest Home-Ice Point Streaks in Post -Cup Era

11 – 1/19/17 - 2/19/17 (9-0-2)

10 - 12/16/89 - 01/28/90 (9-0-1)

10 – 3/24/13 - 10/17/13 (7-0-3 – Multi-season Streak)

The Shots

Isles 11-8-10=29

Winnipeg 7-13-8=28

The Isles are 16-8-5 when they outshoot their opponents and 3-3-0 when the shots are even but are 14-16-5 when they are outshot.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 33-26-11 overall; 20-10-6 at home and 13-16-5 on the road.

Winnipeg is 31-33-7 overall; 16-18-1 at home and 15-15-6 on the road.

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 10-9-4 in Division games and 23-17-7 in games versus other divisions (9-9-3 vs. Atlantic, 6-4-2 vs. Central and 8-4-2 vs. Pacific). The Isles are 19-18-7 against the East and 14-8-4 against the West.

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 24 saves but falls to 24-16-4 on the season and 4-1-1 in his career against Winnipeg.

Connor Hellebucyk made 27 saves to improve to 23-18-4 on the season and 1-1-0 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Isles went 0-4 on the power play; Winnipeg was 1-5.

The Isles are 14-7-6 when they score at least one power play goal and 19-19-5 when they do not. The Isles are 12-13-5 when they allow at least one power play goal and 21-13-6 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 32-7-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-19-8 when they do not.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 11-9-11 in games decided by a single goal including 5-9-0 in regulation. They are 5-7 in games decided in overtime and are 1-4 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-1 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game (including one game that they allowed a goal after scoring an empty-netter).

First Goal

The Isles are 22-8-7 when they score first and are 11-18-4 when they allow the opening goal.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 5-7-1 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 5-3-5 on the back-end.

The Isles will play 16 sets of back-to-backs this season. The next back-to-back set is March 24th in Pittsburgh and March 25th vs. Boston.

Tired vs. Rested

·The Isles are 4-1-3 when both teams played the night before.

·The Isles are 5-4-2 when they are rested and their opponents are not.

·The Isles are 1-2-2 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

The Isles are 1-3-0 in day games (0-0-0 at home and 1-3-0 on the road) this season with two games to play:

·11/25 - at SJ Sharks (lost 2-3)

·1/16 – at Bos Bruins (won 4-0)

·2/11 – at Ott Senators (lost 0-3)

·3/5 - at Cal Flames (lost 2-5)

·3/18 – vs Col Blue Jackets

·4/2 – at Buf Sabres

The Isles went 3-4-2 in day games last season (3-1-1 at home and 0-3-1 on the road).

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series one game to one (and 2 points to 2).

The Isles are 10-4-1 in 14 games against the Jets since the franchise relocated to Winnipeg, but are only 3-4-0 on home-ice.

On The Farm

Bridgeport is 37-21-2-1 on the season (and 19-6-1-0 in their last 26) as they begin another 3-in-3 weekend in Providence on Friday.

Bracken Kearns leads the Sound Tigers in goals (21) and points (21-22-43). Rookie Devon Toews leads the team in assists with 33. Ryan Pulock leads the defense with 12 goals (12-23-35 in only 40 games) while Jaroslav Halak leads the team in wins (16-5-3).

The Isles begin a stretch of three games against the Top 4 teams in the East as they entertain the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2nd time this season in the only afternoon game on the home schedule this season.

The Isles are 8-0-3 in their last 11 home games against the Jackets, including a perfect 3-0-0 at Barclays Center.

The home team has won all three games this season, with the Isles winning 4-2 at home on January 24th but dropping the two games in Columbus by a combined 13-2.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog http://www.nyiskinny.com./

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick